Listen, White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson is quite a player. He is young and still developing as he approaches his fourth season in the majors. But let’s be honest, if Manny Machado decides to sign with the White Sox he will hold more sway over what position he plays than Anderson.
However, Anderson seems to feel differently about this process.
"I would love to play with [Machado], but shortstop is mine"
A candid Tim Anderson opens up about Manny Machado: https://t.co/HkI4rqd9SG pic.twitter.com/l1oK9BftfA
— White Sox Talk (@NBCSWhiteSox) January 29, 2019
I get it, Anderson feels entitled to dictate terms in the infield since, besides Jose Abreu, he is the senior member of the infield contingent. But, that doesn’t allow him to declare his superiority to a player like Machado, who is — let’s be honest — far superior to Anderson.
“I don’t feel like I have to bow down to nobody,” Anderson explained last weekend at SoxFest. “I don’t feel like I just have to give something up, what I worked hard for. But, you know, we human. And like I said it’s open arms here. I would love to play with him, but shorstop is mine.”
There was a brief, tense hour or so at SoxFest after Anderson’s comments were tweeted. There was quick back peddling to smooth the appearance of a prickly feud over shortstop if Machado joined the Sox. One could read the message on Anderson’s face that he was sending a pejorative message to Machado through his comments.
“I came too far for these fans,” Anderson continued, “to kind of, you know, want to give it [shortstop] to Machado. I don’t think that’s right, but at the end of the day, I get it and I see both sides. And so that’s why I’m just here to try and win a championship. The White Sox have been nothing but good to me, so I can do nothing but respect what they have going on.
But his statements should be interpreted exactly how he delivered them. He believes he has a right to shortstop and that kind of attitude can be interpreted in several ways on its own.
“If he take it, kudos to him,” Anderson said. “You know it’s fair game. I get it. You come in and you take, it it’s yours man. Congrats.”
Anderson added that “he’s not that guy,” claiming that he’s not going to stand in the way of someone outplaying him. NBC Sports Chicago reporter Chuck Garfien, who interviewed Anderson, asked if he believed he could be one of the best shortstops in the league, to which he replied in the affirmative.
(July 18, 2016 – Source: Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images North America via Zimbio)
White Sox manager Rick Renteria also chimed in at SoxFest about where Machado would play for the Southsiders.
“This young man has said that he will play wherever we need him to play to help us win. So I’m not worried about where he’s going to play. He knows the makeup of the roster, he knows who we have on the field. I’ll just leave it at that and say that this kid wants to be a participant and will do whatever it takes to help a major league ball club win championships.”
It seems fair to say that more research on the matter is warranted. Fortunately, I dug a little deeper.
The Data Paints a Clearer Picture
Of course, Anderson is going to agree that he has the talent to be one of the best. Few players, if any, ever confess to knowing they might not be as talented as the next guy, but his public objections to handing over his spot to Machado has a whiff of concern.
Yet, the hard numbers back up Anderson’s claims. Despite a few shaky patches of spotty defense, Anderson compiled a .967 fielding percentage. This is the only metric that places Machado above Anderson given his .979 fielding percentage. Considering Machado played multiple positions complicates this comparison, but Machado played a better shortstop for the majority of the season in Baltimore than he did third base.
The peripheral metrics paint a much different picture. Anderson prevails when compared to Machado in virtually every category. Surprisingly, Machado was worth -6.5 in Ultimate Zone Rating, a calculation that measures general effectiveness when compared to the average player at each position. Meanwhile, although meager at best, Anderson was worth 0.5 UZR rating and zero defensive runs saved. Machado on the other hand, cost his team 13 defensive runs saved while only converting 88 plays out of zone (OOZ — another metric that measures plays made outside the defensive range of the average player). Anderson nearly doubled Machado in OOZ with 159 plays.
(July 17, 2018 – Source: Patrick Smith/Getty Images North America via Zimbio)
Even though Machado has played four more seasons in the bigs than Anderson, the negative defensive rating — in terms of peripheral statistics compared to other players — is fairly consistent. His best defensive season was 2015 while the rest of his career has been up and down.
Where Machado excels is making routine plays, indeed the old maxim of consistency rings true in this case. As a shortstop in 2018, Machado made 97.4 percent of routine plays compared to Anderson’s 96.6. Almost one percent more plays made on a routine basis over 1300+ chances is important. And when “likely” — 60-90% probable — and “even” — 40-60 probable — plays are compared for the two players, Machado prevails again. Moreover, Machado converted more “unlikely” and “remote” plays than Anderson did last season as well.
Perhaps Anderson’s reaction to Machado claiming his spot is fair. The statistics appear to back up Andreson’s assertion, but when probing deeper a contradiction appears. I guess they’ll just have to duke it out the old-fashioned way — prove they can command the position at Spring Training.